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Abilities
Abilities are how players can act on bills. Most abilities affect if the bill will pass or fail, while there are some that serve a different purpose entirely. Usage Players can use abilities on bills at the cost of energy and stress. Upon usage, the ability will instantly take effect and text generated depending on the ability will be made in the bills' page. Effectiveness of most abilities depend on the users' stress level, stats, and the bill its played on. There are also abilities wherin their power relies on other factors, and some that affects the bill in special ways. Filibuster, for example, makes it so that no one can play abilities on the bill so long as the user has the energy to maintain it. List of Abilities 'Half Hearted Punditry' Works the same on any and every bill. Everyone starts with this ability 'Rational Debate' "What? That'll never work." It is a direct upgrade of half hearted punditry. 'Claim Fiscal Infeasibility' "We'd like to stop that meteor that's on a collision course with Earth and all, but the numbers just aren't really adding up." Claim that you can't do something because of "Financial Impossibilities" "We can't afford to fund the death ray, It's way ''too costly!" "We can't afford to ''not raise taxes, We need more money!" Appeal to Emotion "No facts? No problem!" Claim that the opposition's take is just plain wrong "I don't care what financial benefits Soylent Green has, the entire concept of it is just plain wrong!" 'Rhetoric' "We have to stay the course." Best used after several abilities have already been played, grows weaker each successive use. 'Think of the Children!' "Won't somebody please think of the children?!" Say that the bill should be judged based on the effect it has on "The Children" "We need more education spending!!! The Children need to learn!!!" "We need the government to force us to get vaccinations!! WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!?!?!?!?!" Claim Future Economic Benefits "Sure, the Death Ray might seem expensive... but as you can see from this chart: it really pays off in the long run!" Claim something that has short term financial difficulty will pay off in the long-term "Solar energy is the FUTURE! It will pay off 10 times what it took to fund research in only a year!" 'Equate Taxes To Thievery' "Big Brother is stealing from you!" Claim the opposition only has his opinion because he wants to take everyone's money "They only think we should raise taxes because they want to get their greedy hands on your precious currency!" Appeal to Nationalism "They might make better cars... but we make '''American' cars!"'' Tug at nationalist heartstrings by invoking America into the discussion "I think abolishing congressional security is detrimental to the people who work for AMERICA!" Accuse Opponents of Racism "Well, we all know how fleet-footed those black youths can be; right, guys?... ha ha ... guys?" Claim that your opponent only believes what he does because he is just plain racist "They only want to raise the tariffs in Central Africa because they don't want the quote-unquote "inferior race" to interfere with their competition" Compare Opponents to Hitler/Nazis "Godwins Law." Use Reductio ad Hitlerum to tug at the heartstrings of everyone involved "He wants to increase protesting restrictions? That sounds like something HITLER would do!" Refer to Opposition as "Socialists" "Mister Jones... are you, or have you ever been a member of The Communist Party?" Use "Socialism" as a punching bag to help your case "We need to push back the socialist menace in America today!" Accuse Opponents of Elitism "Well I guess this problem must look pretty clear-cut from way up in that ivory tower you live in, Mister Smith." Can only be used if you have the trait "Good ol' Boy" Speculate that the reason that your opponent doesn't think like you is because he's out of touch with normal American lives, and must he some kind of elitist, being the congress bigcat he is "My opponents just don't get ''the fact that, sometimes, we ''need ''to have our children help the country, and that they need to learn from it. Child labor laws just hamper our growth as a nation. But Mr. Moneybags thinks that 'WE DON'T NEED TO! WE ALREADY HAVE ALL THE HELP WE WILL NEED! HERRRR'. They are just elitists who think that we are all rich, and don't need all the help we can get!" '''Invoke Prior Military Service' "When I was in that prison camp in 'nam...." Can only be used if you have the trait "Military Service" Use your military expertise as a backup for your opinion "In all the years I've spent in the navy, war is HELL! We shouldn't be promoting it again" "In all those times in 'nam, I knew I was fighting for a good cause, and war is the only way to get peace!" 'Spew False Dichotomies' Becomes more effective when bill support is closer to the side the user plays on (either for or against). "It's either us, or them!" 'Filibuster' "Sometimes you just need to take the floor and talk about your cats." The player who uses a Filibuster on a bill spends their energy at a rate of 1 energy per minute to stop any abilities from being played on said bill.(energy regen is still in place however.) "I want to tell you all about my cat, munchkins. Bla bla bla, bla bla bla, bla bla bla bla. Bla bla, bla, bla I'm just wasting your time bla bla bla..." Scaremongering "Global Warming is going to kill us all!" Tug at the scare-strings of people to invoke a violent response in your favor! Costs 10 energy instead of 5 "OH NO!!!! GMOS ARE GONNA KILL US ALL!!!11!!!11 BE AFRAID!!!! BE VERY VERY AFRAID!!!!1111!!!!!!1!1!!!!!" Argue Constitutionality "I think you can plainly see that this situation falls under the Interstate Commerce Clause." Costs 10 energy instead of 5, and requires Well-Educated trait. Also adds CSP every time it is used unless if you gaffe. Claim that a bill is (Un)constitutional in order to help your case "Clearly, this increase protesting restrictions bill is a violation of free speech imposed by the first amendment!" Invoke The Founding Fathers "George Washington grew hemp!" Claim the founding fathers of America would share your opinion "I think good ol' George would be ashamed of the march for protesting restrictions!" 'Oversight Committee' "Congressperson Matthews: this committee finds your proposed amendment containing appropriations for yourself, your cronies and their cats to be an appalling perversion of the legislative process!" Prevents other committees (including Conference Committees) and Poison Pills from being played on the bill. Gives the bill a good chunk of support. Costs clout. 'Poison Pill' "Clearly this defense spending bill needs a funding increase for the Parks and Rec department of Michigan. We should probably add a line to outlaw abortion while we're at it." The bill gets tagged with P when used on. Anyone who plays in favor of the bill while the poison pill is on will lose constituent support, unless the bill is unaligned (white border). Costs clout. If the bill passes while the poison pill is still attached, the attacher gains cash. 'Research Committee' "I'm sure the committee chair you appoint will conveniently misplace anything from the Congressional Research Service that could hurt your case." When used on a bill, it gets tagged H, and support on the bill increases in random increments daily. Useful for large bills. One player can only have two research committees running at once, however. Costs clout. 'Budget Accounting Committee' "Being that the financial and societal impact of this bill is so great, this committee finds that provisions 6-14 must be implemented only after 2 years time, and provisions 18, 23 and 47 are to be implemented by the 5th of Never." Sets the bill back a minor amount and prevents the bill from affecting the nation for 24-120 hours. (costs clout?) 'Conference Committee' "Clearly you're all incapable of agreeing on anything, so let's muck around with this bill until you can!" Puts the bill into a voting state, where players can vote to double or halve the effects of the bill, as well as remove or keep a poison pill if there is one. Always gives the bill a good chunk of support. Costs 40 energy; clout cost varies depending on size of bill. 'Legislative Review Committee' "I think it's plain to see that this proposed bill violates subsection (47)(q) of this Congressional act dictating handling procedures for live squirrels in government captivity." Puts the bill into a voting state, where players can vote to declare the bill legal or illegal. If the bill is declared illegal, the bill's support is set to 1. If the bill is declared legal, the bill gets a huge chunk of support. (costs clout?) 'Wildcard' "Politicians say the darndest things." Completely random power that can be negative. Use at your own risk or for kicks. Category:Clout: The Game